Every now and then, a certain food will catch fire. It’s suddenly featured on magazine covers, touted on morning television talk shows or in newspaper health columns.

David Duprey/The Associated PressA one-cup serving of Cheerios has a paltry single gram of soluble fiber - that means it could take 10-plus bowls of Cheerios - daily - to effectively lower LDL cholesterol.

While no one is saying that these suddenly trendy foods are bad, many just don’t live up to the hype of being a “perfect diet food,” “superfood,” or any other “best of” category. Few foods could.

They may provide necessary nutrients, but those benefits may be offset because they add unwanted calories, carbs, and/or sugars. Often, there are other options that provide the same (or better) nutritional value, without those diet-busting elements.

Today, we’re taking a look at five foods that have been given too much hype; and five less glamorous options that are well worth adding to your plate.

Agave

Agave nectar just sounds so much better than sugar or corn syrup. And it’s marketed as a natural sweetener with a lower glycemic index than sugar or honey, meaning that it will have less of a spike or crash in blood sugar or insulin levels.

This may be true, but agave isn’t any lower in calories or sugar than other sweeteners. Every tablespoon packs in 60 to 64 calories and 15 to 16 grams of sugar — the same as honey, and more than what’s in a tablespoon of regular granulated white sugar (45 calories and 12 grams of sugar).

The American Heart Association recommends that we limit added sugars to no more than 25 grams daily for women and 37 grams daily for men, and agave falls into this category of “added” sugars, right alongside table sugar, molasses, honey and high-fructose corn syrup.

So if you’re just using a teaspoon here and there, agave is really a non-issue. But if you use sweeteners on a regular basis, my preference is one of the many plant-based sweeteners on the market with zero calories and less than a gram of sugar per tablespoon.

Bananas

A potassium-rich diet is linked to lower blood pressure, a reduced risk of stroke, and is a common remedy for muscle cramping. And when most people think about how to get more potassium in their diet, the banana is usually the first food that comes to mind. And while bananas are certainly high in potassium with 487 mg per 120-calorie banana, they’re not necessarily the best, nor the lowest calorie source of potassium. A cup of cantaloupe packs in 473 mg of potassium for half the calories of a banana, and a cup of cooked spinach and a grilled Portobello mushroom each have more potassium (839 mg and 630 mg, respectively), with one-third the calories of a banana, and almost zero sugar. Protein-rich foods, such as fish, scallops and pork loin, are among the lesser-known top sources of potassium, with many providing 450 to 550 mg of potassium per six-ounce serving.

Quinoa

Quinoa, pronounced keen-wa, has been dubbed a supergrain, touted for its high protein, fiber and iron content. And compared to a grain like white rice, quinoa is higher in these nutrients.

But along with 8 grams of protein, 5 grams of fiber, and 15 percent of the daily value for iron, quinoa also packs in 220 calories and nearly 40 grams of carbs per cup (about the same as white pasta).

A cup of black beans, in comparison, has the same calorie content, but double the protein and three times the fiber of quinoa, with about 30 percent more iron. And a cup of cooked spinach has more than twice as much iron as quinoa, for a mere 40 calories.

Plain Greek yogurt gives us 23 grams of protein per 140-calorie cup, and a three-ounce serving of fish has 21 grams of protein for 100-120 calories — far better ratios of protein to calories than quinoa’s eight grams of protein per 220 calories.

So for those who aren’t concerned about carbs or calories, quinoa is perfectly fine. But if you’re looking to use quinoa as a protein substitute in place of lean meat, poultry or seafood, be aware that it’s a calorie-dense protein alternative, and there are plenty of other non-meat options with more protein, fiber and iron, for far fewer calories.

Cheerios

Switching to Cheerios is one of the first nutritional changes that many people make when diagnosed with high cholesterol. And while it’s true that Cheerios contains soluble fiber that can help lower bad LDL cholesterol levels, the National Institutes of Health’s National Cholesterol Education Program recommends increasing soluble fiber to 10 to 25 grams daily in order to reduce LDL levels. A one-cup serving of Cheerios has a paltry single gram of soluble fiber — that means it could take 10-plus bowls of Cheerios — daily — to effectively lower LDL cholesterol. (Oatmeal, just as a frame of reference, has 2 grams of soluble fiber per serving). Our better bets when it comes to foods high in soluble fiber: Kellogg’s All-Bran Bran Buds (4.5 grams of soluble fiber per half-cup) and beans or lentils (4 to 6 grams of soluble fiber per cup). Ground psyllium (the main ingredient in original Metamucil) is one of the top sources of soluble fiber, with 6 grams of soluble fiber per tablespoon.

Chicken breast

Stocking up on skinless boneless chicken breast is typical for many who are trying to lose weight or just be a bit healthier. And while there’s nothing wrong with the poultry, there are plenty of other good-for-you lean protein options beyond skinless white meat chicken.

Ounce-for-ounce, pork tenderloin has slightly fewer calories than skinless chicken breast, with the added bonus of more than 50 percent of a day’s worth of the antioxidant selenium in every 4-ounce serving. Shrimp are just as low in calories as chicken, with even less saturated fat, plus we get more than a quarter of a day’s worth of vitamin B12 in every four-ounce serving. And extra-lean ground beef (9 percent lean) has just seven more calories per ounce than skinless chicken breast, with triple the iron, five times the B12, and more than six times the zinc.

So while plain old chicken is perfectly acceptable, there’s really no reason for anyone to experience poultry burnout.

A South Louisiana favorite, red beans are loaded with nutritional benefits. A single cup packs in 16 grams of fiber, as much as you’d get in five slices of whole grain bread. A cup of red beans also provides 20 percent of the daily value for iron and one-third of the daily value for folate, which can help to reduce homocysteine levels, a compound that’s associated with increasing our risk for heart disease.

Red beans are among the top plant-based sources of protein, with one cup providing 16 grams of protein, as much as you get in two cups of milk. And ounce-for-ounce, red beans have a higher concentration of antioxidants than the same amount of blackberries, garlic, raspberries, blueberries or almonds.

For maximum nutritional benefits, try red beans without rice (give it a chance, you just might like it, really), and add them to salads, soups and slow-cooker dishes.

Pecans

Almonds and walnuts tend to get most of the glory, but pecans actually have the highest total antioxidant content of all types of nuts. Try incorporating them into your usual rotation of nuts and seeds, adding a tablespoon or two of chopped pecans to salads, Greek yogurt or oatmeal, or blend them into protein shakes for a dose of appetite-squelching fat.

For those watching calories, though, be careful when it comes to quantity, since every ounce (about 20 pecan halves) has 200 calories and 20 grams of fat (mostly heart-healthy monounsaturated fats).

Red cabbage

It has about five times the antioxidant content as green cabbage, with the deep red color representing its anthocyanin content, the same type of antioxidants found in blueberries, blackberries and cranberries. These anthocyanins also seem to have an anti-inflammatory effect, and may be helpful in lowering blood pressure and improving vision. A cup of raw red cabbage also provides 85 percent of the daily value for vitamin C, and nearly half a day’s worth of vitamin K. And with less than 30 calories per cup, it’s figure-friendly, as well. Try it in salads or in a lightened-up slaw, or, my favorite, braised with a little olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

Eggs

Don’t toss the yolks (at least not all of them), since egg yolks are one of the top sources of choline, a nutrient necessary for healthy cell membranes and brain function, plus it plays a critical role in how we metabolize fats. The yolk of the egg is also a good source of vitamin B12, as well as lutein and xeaxanthin, antioxidants that are linked to a reduction in age-related macular degeneration.

Eggs are relatively low in saturated fat (just 1.5 grams per large egg, less than what’s in one tablespoon of olive oil), with just over half the recommended daily limit of cholesterol. The American Heart Association says that we can have one yolk a day, as long as we limit our intake of other cholesterol-containing foods. Eggs are also protein-rich, with about 7 grams of high-quality protein in one large egg (4 grams in the white and 3 grams in the yolk). I’ll typically recommend that clients add one whole egg to four egg whites, giving them as much protein as they would get in 3 ounces of lean meat.

Watermelon

Tomatoes are celebrated for their cancer-fighting lycopene content, but ounce-for-ounce, watermelon can have 40 percent more of the cancer-fighting antioxidant than tomatoes. And, unlike tomatoes, which need to be cooked in order to maximize lycopene absorption, we can still reap the same benefits from raw watermelon.

Watermelon is classified as high glycemic, meaning that its sugar can spike our blood sugar levels faster than say a plum or a pear. But glycemic index is generally based on consuming 50 grams of carbohydrates of a specific food, and since watermelon has just 11 grams of carbohydrate per cup (compared to 27 grams of carbs in a cup of grapes), that means an average, healthy person would have to eat nearly five cups of watermelon — without any type of protein or fat-containing foods — in order to experience a negative effect on blood sugar or insulin levels.